August 2010

August 28, 2010

Cowboys coach Wade Phillips had plenty reasons why his defense was run over by the Texans Saturday night.

The Cowboys simply couldn't stop the pass or the run.

Texans quarterback Matt Schaub completed 18 of 29 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown. Andre Johnson caught seven passes for 79 yards, while Jacoby Jones added five receptions for 63 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown pass when he was wide open behind the defense.

Phillips said the Texans took advantage of his decision to not blitz the quarterback. He also said the Cowboys were not prepared for the Texans' four-receiver package. They only worked on a three-receiver set.

He also said there were blown assignments. One play Johnson was supposed to be double covered but he was left wide open on a crossing route.

Most embarrassing was the team's inability to tackle or stop the run. The Texans rushed for 173 yards, including 110 by Arian Foster.

Phillips had no excuse for that. He said the Cowboys must stop the run, especially on the road.

"It's not frustrating," Jenkins said. "It's a preseason game. We're coming in, and we're running straight base. We're not running our defense here. I mean, it's nothing to get frustrated over. We're going to correct what we messed up on, and we're going to get back to the next game."

The Cowboys return here in Week 3 for a regular-season game against the Texans. Many of the Cowboys said judge them now, not on Saturday's game.

"That’s when it really counts, right?" Jenkins said. "Coming into the season, that’s what we want to look for. …We’re not making no excuses. We just came in, and we lost the game."

Roy Williams caught three passes for 39 yards in his most productive game since the wild-card playoff game against the Eagles when he had five catches for 59 yards. Williams had only seven games, including the playoffs, with more yards than the 39 he had Saturday night against the Texans.

In one of the rare times since the Cowboys traded for him in 2008, Williams wasn't talking.

But owner Jerry Jones praised Williams' efforts Saturday.

"I was real impressed with Roy Williams," Jones said. "I thought he gave us a spark, made some plays. I was impressed with the communication between Romo and Miles Austin and [Romo and] Roy. He sent them a signal; he sent them deep. That's how you can make some plays. That's good work."

Trailing 10-0, the Cowboys drove the ball from their 24-yard-line to the Houston 16. But on a first down play, Tony Romo attempted a pitch back to Felix Jones, who thought the play was going to be a handoff. It was clear that Jones didn't know the play, and Romo explained it afterward.

“I changed the play at the line of scrimmage," Romo said. "I went through
the process of tlling the guys. I didn’t say it loud enough, I guess, for Felix
to hear."

Romo said the only good news for the Cowboys was that the play occurred during preseason, rather than in an important regular season game.

"It’s
a situation where it’s good it came up now," Romo said, "because now I’m going to have a
signal for the type of run and we haven’t had that. It’s going to be loud on
the road and to get to both tackles, receivers and the tailback behind you, you
need to be able to signal something for people that aren’t near you and then
tell the line in front of you. So that should speed up the process. It was
disappointing that happened because it was an important possession in the game,
but it will definitely benefit us in the long run to have things at our
disposal."

The Cowboys’ dress rehearsal didn’t go as planned, especially for the first-team offense. There were two fumbles by the first-team offense, one lost. There was a red-zone interception. The running game was non-existent. Miles Austin had a drop. Jason Witten had a false start. Andre Gurode had a false start. The offensive line allowed two sacks. There was miscommunication, missed plays and missed chances.

The Cowboys looked like not-ready-for-prime-time players.

The first-team offense, which played one series into the third quarter, produced 11 first downs and 135 total yards – 127 passing and 8 rushing.

The Texans led 23-0 when the first-team offense left the game.

“We just need to do better,” Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett said. “We just need to execute better and play better and go from there.”

Tony Romo was 13-for-18 for 146 yards with one interception and a 72.9 passer rating. Romo said his back was hurting him last week, but that he felt good this week.

“We have to execute,” Romo said. “We are not executing things the way we could be.”

To that end, the starters likely will play at least a series in the final preseason game against the Dolphins on Thursday. At least, that's what everyone hinted Saturday night.

"I think it's important to have a good feeling," Garrett said. "Typically, we've played a series, sometimes we haven't played a series [in the last preseson game]. We need to get in some good offensive rhythm and feel good about how we're playing."

Cowboys rookie receiver Dez Bryant has been cleared to play Thursday night against the Dolphins. He might play, too, since it sounds as if the Cowboys will play their first-team offense at least a series.

"I don’t know," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said when asked if Bryant would play Thursday. "He’ll be able to play. He’ll be ready to go. It’s a question of is it worth some of the risk. If we end up playing our regulars, then that might make a difference. We typically have not played a full set of our players, so that might be something we might consider since we’ve got a chance to have our starters out there."

Bryant ran routes before the game. He also ran full speed some Thursday. Bryant, who injured his right ankle in practice July 30 and has not practiced with the team since, said he feels great and eager to get back on the field.

"I'm very anxious to get back on the field," Bryant said. "At the same time, I know it's a work in progress. I have to do everything everybody asks me to do to get to 100 percent. I know how calm I am about the game of football. I just have to be smart. Hopefully, when the trainers give me that go call, I'll be ready to go."

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said his team was well rested going into Saturday's preseason loss to the Texans.

Sure the Cowboys were camp longer than any other team and are ready to go home.

Sure they practiced in three different cities and traveled nearly 5,000 miles.

But he said the team benefitted from light practices and cool temperatures in California over the past week.

" It’s rested," Jones said. "The team is very rested. This past week we had a very light week. Our team, our legs, we had great weather out there and tried to back off. So we have a good rested group."

So how do you explain the blowout loss and the general lack of passion by your team?" We make some plays," Jones said. " Get in there and got some turnovers at some tough times. That just happens when you play a team like the Texans. We knew they were a good team and we’ve just got to play better. Hopefully we’ll get even in the regular season."

By any objective standard, the Cowboys have not been impressive in preseason. They weren't great even in their victory over San Diego last week. And Saturday night, they were almost unwatchable in a 23-7 loss to the Texans.

But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has never met a positive thought he couldn't embrace, and he said not all is bad. A few things need fixing, of course, but here were a few thoughts from Jerry after the game.

Overall: "We’ll just go to work and look at what we need to do. I
would hope we would have some antidotes for some of the things, start with
defense and some of the things they do. They get into some three wides, do
those kinds of things, four wides. Then we’ve got some things that we do that
we didn’t do tonight. We’ve got some things to stop that. But we all know that
we’re going to be running up against teams like the Texans. In fact, we run up
against them, and you’ve got to be ready to play. We can’t afford any bad
nights.

Is the team tired from a long training camp in two places? "It’s rested. The team is very rested. This past
week we had a very light week. Our team, our legs, we had great weather out
there and tried to back off. So we have a good rested group."

How do you explain tonight? "We make some plays. Get in
there and got some turnovers at some tough times. That just happens when you
play a team like the Texans. We knew they were a good team and we’ve just got
to play better. Hopefully we’ll get even in the regular season."

Will the regulars play on Thursday? "It could. It really could. But I
think that this just again shows us how we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ll
put the work in. But I believe we’ve had in my mind a very productive [training
camp]. We got a lot of work done. We need to go back and take advantage and we
need to look and see what we can do differently in all areas – fronts, our
skill people, every area. There were some good things we saw out there tonight.
I was real impressed with Roy Williams. I thought he really gave us a spark,
made some plays, I was impressed with the communication between [Tony] Romo and Miles
Austin and Roy. He sent him with a signal, he sent them deep. That’s how you
can make some plays. That’s good work. I would have like to have seen us stop
them for less yards, make more yards, but still, that was good work out there
tonight."

With the Cowboys' offense still struggling in the preseason, plans to not play the starter in the Thursday preseason final game against the Dolphins may be changing.

“We haven’t had those specific discussions
yet," offensive coordinator Jason Garrett said, "but I anticipate us playing a little bit on Thursday night, the first
group.”

Why?

“I think it’s important to have a good feeling," he said. "Typically we’ve
played a [good] series, sometimes we haven’t played a [good] series. We need to get in some
good offensive rhythm and feel good about how we’re playing."

If you're looking for something to be positive about in the Cowboys 23-7 loss to Houston Saturday night, don't look at the running game.

Marion Barber ran four times and lost two yards. That's not a typo. Minus 2.

Felix Jones carried three times for a whopping total of six yards. Not much a reason for high fives.

In the preseason, the Cowboys' top two running backs have now gained 44 yards between them. Barber has 12 carries for 23 yards and Jones has nine carries for 21 yards.

"

It’s definitely a concern that we’re not running it at a
better clip," quarterback Tony Romo said. "That’s a huge advantage if you’re able to consistently get yards,
especially on the road. When it’s third and 10 it puts a lot of pressure on
the O-linemen and a lot of people have to do a lot of things right. We
definitely need to perform better."